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When I was a child, I was given a National Geographic video featuring an American stalactite cave researcher. I was fascinated by him as he spoke of the damage to the stalactites caused by humans. I remember thinking: "We are temporary guests on this incredible planet, created so long before our existence, and we are actively contributing to its destruction". This is probably when I started to hold on to it, safeguard it, document it and discuss it.
From that minute on I have been – and still am – observing and touching stones and sand, and even collecting them (though of course, I do not take any stones from protected areas or rare materials). I adopted this ritual, following it since annual school trips, in which we collected colorful sand in the Makhtesh and knocked on basalt rocks in the Golan; and also, on the last tour I attended about a week ago at the light railway site in Petach Tikvah – to be used as a maintenance and operations center.
I admit it. I am one of those people who actually carry rocks around. Maybe that is the reason I have to change my bags so very often.
Sparkles of Love. For Materials
For a very long time I had accompanied the work of the Recycling Forum, whose members were (and some still are) engaged in landfilling and recycling of construction waste in Israel. In one of the routine meetings of the Forum, one of the members shared his experience from the construction process of a new IKEA branch in the Krayiot, in northern Israel. Since it was decided to build the store on land that was littered with building waste, it was also decided to collaborate with “Yofi Nof Shredders”. Yofi Nof was requested to remove the waste to an authorized landfill site (in accordance with Israeli law); recycle the appropriate materials (a private initiative, beyond compliance); and to reuse recycled aggregates from the waste in the pavement and parking infrastructure on site.
I was in awe of the importance and necessity of the reuse of materials in the creation of infrastructure; the financial and environmental savings incurred in the process; and the integrated use of technological capabilities, which must be even further improved today. At that point, a spark of love for materials and substances was lit within me,, and my decision was made – to take a more proactive role in doing the work and learning about this issue.
You can get to know me a little better and see where this professional passion led me, on the about page of my website.
Welcome!
I am pleased to welcome you to my RecycleCity blog, its name incorporates the words:
Recycle; from which also emanates the circularity of Cycle; and naturally City.
I invite you to read my posts, in which I express my love of the materials that the Israeli city is being constructed with; and discuss urbanism, reuse, recycling and circularity. My blog posts will observe, contact and document raw material relevant for urban construction. I will share lectures, research and publications from Israel and from around the world, tours and consultations that will shed a light toward the understanding of raw materials for the future development of buildings and infrastructure in Israel.
Musings from the Sandbox | Misc. and Links
- Something borrowed | This post was inspired by: Itzik Elimelekh – Yofi Nof Shredders (Hebrew website)
- Something new | This is happening: The new Facebook group ConTech Construction Tech Israel, for Israel's leading building and construction community (in Hebrew).
- Oops, I did it again | A new article I had published in the “Industrial, Energy and Infrastructures Magazine” (in Hebrew): Are We About to See Buildings Made of Diamonds in Israel?
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